Russian Ambassador to China Sergei Razov said in Beijing Tuesday that smooth progress had been witnessed in the energy cooperation between Russia and China.

Russia plans to pipe 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China for each year, the ambassador disclosed during an interview with Xinhuanet.com.

"We are continuing a project to provide gas to China and the project includes building a gas pipeline through China's northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region," Razov said.

He said it was a large project which had many technical problems and experts were discussing solutions to the problems.

Russia plans to provide natural gas to China from 2011 through two lines, namely a western line through Xinjiang and an eastern line which traverses China's northeastern border with Russia.

Razov said the construction of a 2,800-kilometer-long crude oil pipeline is also going well, with 700 kilometers having been completed. He said experts of the two countries are currently discussing the issue of a feeder line to China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2007)